Google used its search prowess as its entry service into enterprises – and small and medium-sized businesses – but stretched this primary platform into a much broader range of applications.
Search has been a focal point of the Google battle with Microsoft. But it is Google’s launch into office productivity software services that will be an even more brutal stoush.
CeBIT Australia will feature a presentation by Google Enterprise vice-president and general manager Dave Girouard at its CeBIT Connect Keynote Series who will outline how Google has already positioned itself in the enterprise market and map its future plans.
Girouard is responsible for all aspects of Google’s enterprise business, including sales marketing, product development and customer support.
Google Enterprise has an already large and growing business in providing enterprise search solutions – hardware and software combinations that companies use within content management systems to keep track of documents and other data.
The Google Enterprise products leverage the company’s core strength in search, supercharges it with specialist hardware, and puts it inside the enterprise firewall.
But Google Enterprise is now well down the path of launching its productivity software applications for the enterprise market. These began with web-based email and calendaring, and have moved to word processing and spreadsheets (the heartland of the Microsoft Office franchise.
The company this week also announced it would launch a web based application similar to Microsoft’s PowerPoint program. The company said it would offer two versions of the software in the coming months – including a US$50 per user per year version.
The new presentation software will be a part of Google Docs and Spreadsheets offering which the company has been rolling out in parts over the past year.
Girouard will provide a broad ‘world view’ of the way Google Enterprise products are being presented to market, outlining some of the areas where the company thinks there is an opportunity to innovate.
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